Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (??) and Wang Chi-lin (???) crashed out of the BWF World Championships men’s doubles event in Spain after falling to ninth seeds Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia 21-12, 17-21, 15-21 on Friday.
Seeded third in the tournament, Lee and Wang lost to the Malaysians for the first time in their career against three previous wins, unable to maintain a consistently high level of play during the 65-minute match at the Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Marín in Huelva.
The Taiwanese came out on the attack in the first game to give themselves a narrow 14-12 lead, and then played their most inspired badminton of the night to win seven straight points to take the lead in the match.
That momentum did not carry over, however, as Ong and Teo regained their composure and raced to an 11-4 lead midway through the second game.
Lee and Wang fought back and eventually narrowed the margin to 19-17 to put pressure on the Malaysians, but they could not get any closer.
In the deciding game, the Taiwanese never recovered from a ragged start that put them in a 7-1 hole, and were unable to narrow the deficit to under three points the rest of the way. A winner to Wang’s body at 20-15 clinched the match for Ong and Teo.
For Wang and Lee, it was another disappointing finish after showing real brilliance at the Tokyo Olympics. The duo has yet to win since grabbing gold in Japan, finishing no better than third at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2021 in early December in Bali, Indonesia.
Lee and Wang opened their World Championship campaign by defeating Ruben Jille and Ties Van Der Lecq of France 18-21, 21-7, 21-11 in their opening match Tuesday, after having received a bye in the first round.
They then topped the 14th-seeded Malaysian pair Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the round of 16 on Thursday to set up the match with Ong and Teo.
Even with the disappointing finish, 2021 has been a very good year for the Taiwanese duo. Their victory in Tokyo was Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in badminton, and they also clinched the men’s doubles title at two Super 1000 Thailand Open tournaments in Bangkok in January and the BWF World Tour Finals 2020 in the same month.
They were also named by the BWF as the most improved players of the Year on Dec. 3.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel